There have been at least 1,400 arrests and more than 850 charges linked to the riots that swept England in August, with more in the pipeline. So far about 250 people have been jailed for their role in violent disorder fuelled by far-right activists, most of it aimed at asylum seekers and Muslims. The nature of these attacks, which included an attempt to set fire to a hotel, the desecration of graves and destruction of a Citizens Advice centre, meant custodial sentences were inevitable. The public, and particularly the targeted communities, needed to know that such brazen and racist aggression would be punished.
But nine weeks after the fatal stabbings of three children in Southport – which were the catalyst for the riots – it is possible to take a step back and think about the longer-term causes and effects of what happened. Research by the Guardian has challenged some of the assumptions about the rioters. For example, most of those charged lived locally, and were not out-of-towners bussed in to make trouble as was suggested at the time. A high proportion of rioters were aged over 40, and came from the most deprived neighbourhoods in England with the worst health outcomes. Reports from youth courts indicate that many of the boys caught up in the violence joined in for reasons that were more social than political. Online rumour and misinformation played a significant role in stirring things up, as they did before a riot in Kirkby in 2023.
Prison sentences are meant as a deterrent. But ministers know that on their own they are not a sufficient response to the summer’s events. Last week, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, pledged “thousands more” neighbourhood police officers, and the government’s counter-extremism strategy is under review. Police chiefs have faced criticism for having underestimated the far right, while Dame Sara Khan, who advised the last government, highlighted the lack of attention to community cohesion in Whitehall, and the weakness of digital regulation, as being among a number of “chronic policy failings” in the area of counter-extremism.
The number of police officers increased by 5% in 2023, compared with the year before. Ms Cooper has not yet spelled out in detail her plans to reinvigorate local policing. But any significant boost to police numbers will cost money and the chances of significant new investment must be slim, given the chancellor’s commitment to restraint (and notwithstanding hints that fiscal rules will be adjusted). But if funding to places judged to be vulnerable to far-right influence is to be increased, councils as well as police forces should be involved. One of the striking findings of the BBC documentary Small Town, Big Riot was that councils were not consulted by the Home Office before it took over local hotels to provide asylum-seeker accommodation. In future, branches of government must work together.
How to address online harms is one of the big policy questions facing governments everywhere. Alongside regulation, ministers should seek to improve media literacy, so that people are better equipped to recognise when they are being manipulated.
The peaceful, anti-far-right demonstrations that followed the riots were a reassuring proof that plenty of people are committed to upholding the rights of refugees and opposed to racism. But they did not expunge the horror of what happened in August. Labour’s strategy to prevent similar events in future needs to go beyond criminal justice.
• This article was amended on 1 October 2024. The town in which the three young children were fatally stabbed in late July was Southport, not Stockport as an earlier version said.
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